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Taking to Twitter, Murdoch Signals Support for Santorum

The media mogul Rupert Murdoch signaled his support for Rick Santorum on Monday evening, calling him the “only candidate with genuine big vision” for the United States.

His comments were significant not only because Mr. Murdoch controls Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal, but also because they were made on Twitter, a Web site that allowed for his support to be forwarded far and wide on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Santorum was a paid analyst for Fox News before he announced his bid for the presidency last year.

Mr. Murdoch seemed to stop short of an outright endorsement. “Can’t resist this tweet,” he wrote, “but all Iowans think about Rick Santorum.” It was unclear if he was saying that all Iowa voters are thinking about Mr. Santorum, or should be thinking about him.

Mr. Murdoch started to post on Twitter on Saturday, surprising some of the tens of thousands of people who have followed his account since then. The account, @rupertmurdoch, was labeled as verified by Twitter, a step taken by the company to indicate when celebrities and politicians are the owners of accounts. When asked on Monday if Mr. Murdoch — a computer neophyte — is indeed on Twitter, his top spokeswoman, Teri Everett, said, “Oh, yes.”

One of Mr. Murdoch’s first messages on Twitter praised a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Ron Paul as “great.” “Huge appeal of libertarian message,” he added.

On Sunday, he singled out Mr. Santorum for more specific praise. “Good to see santorum surging in Iowa,” he wrote. “Regardless of policies, all debates showed principles, consistency and humility like no other.”

In the past the editorial pages of The New York Post and, more recently, The Wall Street Journal have been perceived to be Mr. Murdoch’s platforms for supporting (and sometimes punishing) political candidates. Twitter, of course, gives him a new and much more personal forum to do so.

Mr. Murdoch’s arguably most influential media outlet, Fox News, employed Mr. Santorum for years, but suspended him in March when he was considering running for president. The suspension was made permanent in May after Mr. Santorum agreed to attend a Fox-sponsored debate for Republican candidates.

Despite being a former Fox employee, Mr. Santorum has spoken critically of the network a few times, including as recently as Monday morning. Speaking to the radio host Mike Gallagher, Mr. Santorum said the media had “completely tried to shape this race.”

“It’s not just the liberal media, I mean, it’s even Fox News,” Mr. Santorum said, adding, “You know, Bill O’Reilly has refused to put me on his program.”

On his Fox News broadcast on Monday night, Mr. O’Reilly acknowledged Mr. Santorum’s recent rise in the polls and said, “We have invited Rick Santorum to appear on Wednesday.”

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